The U.S. shootdown of a
defunct spy satellite offers a model of transparency that should be adopted by
other countries that are more secretive about their military operations, the
commander of U.S. Pacific Command said today.

Navy Adm. Timothy J. Keating
drew that line of distinction between last night's mission in which the USA-193
satellite
was intercepted and a seemingly similar act by the Chinese last year,
according to the American Forces Press Service.

The spy satellite USA-193,
also known as NROL-21, was launched aboard a Delta II rocket on Dec. 14, 2006,
from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Shortly after the satellite
reached orbit, ground controllers lost contact with it.

"We've told people what
we're going to do; we've told them how we're going to do it, and it's very
open," Keating said.

Not everyone agrees,
however, that the U.S. satellite shootdown was motivated by safety concerns
or that it was a good idea.

The intentional destruction
last January of China's Fengyun-1C weather satellite produced a flurry of
concern over the hostile-or-not nature of the firing as well as a serious load
of shrapnel littering Earth orbit. That debris is still in space, frustrating
mission managers and satellite operators forced to dodge the potentially
debilitating bits.

The Defense Department is
currently monitoring
the space debris from last night's interception, with no reports of debris
larger than a football as yet.

In addition to the
transparency, the rationale
behind the two missions was distinctly different, Keating said. President Bush
decided to shoot down the satellite after becoming convinced that the
spacecraft's toxic hydrazine fuel posed an unacceptable risk to people on the
ground, Keating said. The U.S. Navy fired a modified Standard Missile-3 at the
satellite, whereas the Chinese exercise was designed to test an anti-satellite
weapon.

"We would hope that
they can see how to do an operation like this, emphasizing the transparency,
emphasizing clear intentions, realizing that while we don't have press embedded
on the ship ? everybody knows what's going on," Keating said. "The
Chinese did not do that when they launched their anti-satellite test. We hope
there are some lessons that become apparent to them."

In fact, Defense Secretary
Robert Gates said today that the United States is prepared to share some
information about the U.S. satellite shootdown with China, according to the
Associated Press.

Gates encouraged more
openness about military operations during his visit to China in November,
according to the American Forces Press Service. And in January, Keating visited
China in an effort to strengthen the military relationship between the U.S. and
China and improve communication.